While Brass fights for his life in surgery after being [[William Cutler|shot]], the CSIs investigate when a man with an absurdly narrow waist is found dead near train tracks. Meanwhile, Warrick handles a case where a man is found dead after a night of serious partying.

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While Brass fights for his life in surgery after being [[William Cutler|shot]], the CSIs investigate when a man with an absurdly narrow waist is found dead near train tracks. Meanwhile, Warrick handles a case where a man is found dead after a night of hardcore partying.

Synopsis

While Brass fights for his life in surgery after being shot, the CSIs investigate when a man with an absurdly narrow waist is found dead near train tracks. Meanwhile, Warrick handles a case where a man is found dead after a night of hardcore partying.

Plot

Picking up where "Bang-Bang" left off, Brass is rushed to the hospital where a surgical team rushes to save his life. Grissom has the power of attorney, given to him several months prior when Brass confided in him about the troubles with his daughter, Ellie. Grissom is called away from the hospital to a crime scene: a man's decapitated body has been found on the train tracks, his head nowhere in sight. Grissom finds a toupee, which could belong to their victim. David Phillips is surprised to pull aside the man's old-fashioned underwear to reveal an unnaturally thin 19 inch waist. Catherine and Warrick are across town at the apartment of Manny Rupert who was clearly living it up before his death: he's surrounded by all sorts of alcohol and drugs. Warrick finds a gun, and Catherine finds the bloody remnants of the mirror, and bullet holes in the wood back of the mirror.

Nick locates the decapitated head by the river, which Dr. Robbins puts with the body in the morgue. He shows Grissom how the man's organs were displaced by whatever he used to shape his waist, and points out that he was killed by a bullet to the chest--not decapitation. Manny Rupert's last night on earth seems to have been a wild one--his blood alcohol was incredibly high, and he had all sorts of drugs in his system. There's evidence of sexual activity in every orifice of his body, and the CSIs take DNA samples in the hopes of discovering the identity of the woman he was with. At the hospital, Grissom authorizes surgery to remove the bullet lodged by Brass's heart and calls Ellie. When Ellie arrives, she's surly and defensive, brushing off Grissom's offer to get her a hotel room. Grissom returns to his lab and studies a book on corsets that reveals men wore them as well. He and Sara go to an old-fashioned clothing store where the salesman, Mr. Phillipe, recognizes their victim as Caleb Carson, who didn't just look the part but acted it. The CSIs go to Caleb's house where they find Civil War era memorabilia. Carson fancied himself a Confederate--a son of the south.

Prints from a soda can in Manny's apartment lead the CSIs to Sindee Houston, a prostitute who admits to being with him the evening of his death. Things were going great until after six rounds of sex she wanted to leave and he got irate. He pulled a gun and fired at her but missed and she got out of the apartment. Sofia questions Gregory Kimble, Caleb's dresser--his prints were on Caleb's corsets. He says he last saw Caleb at a Civil War reenactment of the battle of Gettysburg. A trip to the reenactment field reveals that Caleb challenged another man to a duel after he caught the man talking on his cell phone. The man didn't have real bullets, but Caleb did. Grissom is puzzled when he finds a large pool of blood where Caleb was standing, but Bobby Dawson confirms that the other man wasn't using real bullets. The toupee from the train tracks holds the key--the epithelials on it match Kimble. Kimble says it was an accident--he and Caleb fought over the gun after the man Caleb shot at fled. The gun went off killing Caleb, but Kimble couldn't leave him like that, so he took him to the train tracks and reenacted the death of one of his ancestors, who faced down an on-coming train.

Warrick tells Manny's sister that her brother died from diabetic shock brought on by the drugs, the alcohol and the sugar he consumed that night. She is saddened but knows why he did it--Manny had just turned 40, around the age when many of their relatives, including their parents, died of heart disease. Manny felt like he was living under a death sentence. Warrick can't understand why he would just give up, but Manny's sister reprimands him, telling him he doesn't understand what it's like. Sofia is disgusted when she learns that Ellie has called about her father's pension, but Grissom has the girl brought in and shows her the picture of her as a child on Brass's desk. Grissom and Ellie join Catherine at the hospital--Brass is out of surgery, but soon after they arrive, he codes. The doctors are able to revive him and he looks out the room's window, only to see an emotional Ellie flee. But the team is there for him, and everyone is happy to see him on the road to recovery. Hours later, Grissom relaxes on a bed in a bathrobe, talking about death and how he wants warning before he goes. Sara, also in a robe, walks out of the bathroom, pondering the subject with a small smile, and tells Grissom she's not ready to say goodbye.